Ashcroft's PerjuryIn light of Attorney General John Ashcroft's testimony before the 9/11 committee yesterday, when he claimed that:

"Over eight years [since the last Bush administration], the Bureau [FBI] was denied nearly $800 million of its information technology funding requests.... On September 11, 2001, the FBI's annual technology budget uder the prior Administration was actually $36.1 million less than the Bush budget eight years before. The FBI's information infrastructure had been starved and by September 11, it collapsed from budgetary neglect."

and otherwise tried to shift blame to Janet Reno's DoJ for supposedly eviscerating America's protections from terrorism, here are some interesting facts:

"Attorney General Ashcroft specifically cut counterterrorism spending prior to 9/11. Justice Department documents released by American Progress reveal that in August 2001, the FBI specifically requested additional resources to bolster counterterrorism resources. In response, Ashcroft actually cut counterterrorism funding in critical areas including equipment grants, border control, and the National Domestic Preparedness Office. Our new analysis reveals the 2002 counterintelligence budget proposed by Ashcroft cut counterintelligence spending by more than $476 million – a 23 percent decline from 2001 funding levels."

According to the same Center for American Progress report, counterterrorism wasn't even on Ashcroft's May 2001 budget goals memo. Even more interestingly, he suddenly stopped flying commercial aircraft in the months prior to 9/11.